Digimon : Eye of the Storm
by Mister M-D
Summary: The portal Takato found was not an isolated incident. More and more portals emerged, which enabled tamers and humankind alike to enter the Digital World again. However, humanity's interests lie in shaping the digital world into their own image, in the form of the Digital Empire of Earth. A Renamon flees the Digiworld, seeking a Digidestined, trying to save her conquered world...
1. Prologue

"All hands, man emergency battle stations. This is not a drill."

Renamon's pace quickened. They were mobilizing forces to stop her. This was her only shot though. She wouldn't miss.

Artillery fire coming from up ahead didn't agree with her. Imperial artillery shells ; enough to take out an ultimate level digimon in a single direct hit. Renamon knew the Empire's communications would beat her to the Gate, but she admittedly didn't plan on the amount of firepower the gates' garrisons packed.

She mentally slapped herself. Stupid. Every digimon in the Digital World wanted to get access to the Gates… Of course resistance would be heavy. Perhaps if she had more time to plan her escape… This would all go smoother. Perhaps even with a Resistance strike force and some bombers…

She ran as fast as her legs would take her, dodging incoming artillery and machinegun fire. The chopping of helicopter blades in the distance became louder. They really were pulling all their tricks to take her out.

"Renamon, this is General White. Please, stop. You're causing nothing but misery to yourself, there is nothing out there for you." Blared through the speakers. She was almost at the gates, which were beginning to close. She'd have made it if she had a tamer, preferrably one with a speed card. She'd have to improvise.

"So be it, then."

The chopping of the helicopter blades was replaced by the rattle of gunfire ; the Imperial airforce had reached her. She couldn't dodge bullets ánd make it through the fortress gate in time… It was over. Or so she had thought. An explosion bashed on her eardrums, missiles?

"Renamon, this is Jamie!" She heard on her ear-comm. "Listen, I've got a plan, and you need to do exactly what I say." The captain said, her helicopter pulling ahead of her, towards the fortress gate. "I'm going to jam my bird between those doors, buy you a few extra seconds before they crush it and close completely. You need to get in there and do what you have to do, and do NOT stop to help me."

"You're the Digimon's finest pilot, a symbol of resistance tot he Empire, we cannot lose you! What of your partner? Just eject right before you crash, we can-" Renamon tried.

"No, we cannot go through the gate together. One of them nicked me pretty bad in my shoulder… It's not going to be a happy end for me. Just…. Go. Do what you gotta do in the real world. And don't –" Boom. One of the artillery cannon shells had grazed Jamie's ship, causing her and her ship to turn into a big fireball….

That landed right between the fortress doors. They crunched and screaked, but it worked, they were significantly slowed. Renamon briefly hesitated, but she realised it was over for her ally. She leapt through the crack, into the dimly lit gatehouse.

Inside it was all red, mostly because of the emergency lights. Another announcement came through the intercom : "All Gate B personnel, protocol Omega is in effect. Man emergency battle stations and prepare for gate shutdown in T-minus 2 minutes."

Oh no.

The Gates were, essentially, a big data link to the real world. Once the pink beams would randomly send you somewhere, but the Empire managed to tame them, use them to send troops down from Earth to the Digital World, and vice versa. This also meant they found ways of shutting them off, apperantly.

She ran through a series of hallways, coming face to face with turrets, soldiers and even an armor-clad crusader soldier, armed with a flamethrower.

"Gate shutdown in T-minus 60 seconds."

Her time was running out. Soldiers proved little problems for Renamon ; her diamond storm attack would easily pierce their armors. That, however, took time. Time she didn't have much of.

"Gate shutdown in T-minus 30 seconds."

Panic settled in. Where could the damn courtyard be?! "Dammit!" she cursed, when a door led to another labyrinth of corridors.

"Gate shutdown in T-minus 20 seconds."

One unfortunate soldier met his end by the power of Renamon's paws against his head. Another whimpered and froze in fear. Fuck him, Renamon thought, and noticed an arrow indicating "Gate courtyard". She ran faster than her legs ever had, praying that she found her exit.

"Gate shutdown in T-minus 10 seconds."

She opened the door, and there stood a batallion of soldiers, General White (wearing an appropriate white uniform), and an elevated platform... And the Gate. The pink beam to freedom...

Everything then seemed to go in slowmotion. All the soldiers fired at her, but she was well out of the way before they could hit her.

"Gate shutdown in 5..."

She leapt on several soldiers' heads, trying to just get to the gate in time.

"4..."

She prayed that she would be on time, prayed that she would live to save the Digimon.

"3..."

The beam became thinner. She wouldn't make it...

"2..."

She leapt on General White's face, thinking that served him right. The beam was now almost a fraction of it's width.

"1..."

One final leap, one final massive leap to freedom...

A flash. Streams of data all around her. She noticed the ground was distancing from her at a rapid pace.. She made it!

Then she noticed something unsettling. The beam was catching on her... Or rather, the end of the beam. Looking up, she made a chilling realisation... She wouldn't make it all the way up.

Earth came closer and closer, and then when she thought she could almost touch it... The beam ended.

She flew freely, the portal now fully closed. She thought she would fall, all the way back down... Right into the claws of the Empire...

And then she looked up, and saw perhaps the most beautiful thing she could imagine at that time : her momentum was carrying her towards Earth! Her landing spot would not be what she had planned on though, and her contacts in the real world, who would serve as her tamer to anchor her to Earth, would probably presume she was dead. As she flew towards what she thought was the United Kingdom, she prayed silently that she would find a tamer there... And that the Digital World was not lost yet.

* * *

"You lost her, General." a man said.

White sighed. "I did. I must say I didn't anticipate a member of the resistance to be so... Valiant. I must admit it was an admirable move, albeit an unfavorable one for us..."

The man was silent for a moment.

"She is not a big threat. When she reaches Earth, she will be isolated and weak. Many a digimon have died the way she will. Without a partner to anchor her, she will dissipate quickly."

The man paused.

"Still, contact Hypnos in Tokyo. Tell Yamachi it's code red. A wild one has escaped, and agents should be on high alert."

The man's ornate robes and shining armor stirred as he walked across the courtyard to his transport helicopter.

"As you command," White spoke, "My emperor."

* * *

Whew. There's the prologue. I hope you guys are interested, as I've thought long and hard about what I wanted  
this story to be.


	2. Chapter 1 : An improbable hero

Chapter 1 : An improbable hero...

"...And in other news, a dangerous convict has escaped and has been sighted in the London area. Police officers are patrolling the streets around the clock, but people are still asked not to walk the streets alone at night, and lock their doors. Any useful information can be submitted to..."

Thomas yawned and switched the TV to the Discovery Channel. It was a September Tuesday morning, and as was typical in London, the weather was less than spectacular. He finished his sandwich and got himself dressed, dreading having to sit in school all day.

At least his parents were already out, he mused.

Thomas' parents were both doctors at the Royal London Hospital. It had its perks, lots of alone time, good allowance, and everything for him was paid for. It had made him something of a loner though, being good at mathematics and such, but not so much at friend making.

He sighed and walked over to the door. His schedule said he had maths first, so that meant that for an hour he had a class full of friends. 'Funny,' he thought, 'Normally I only have 3.'

He took his normal route to school, some 10 minutes of cycling. He'd cross some streets, go through a park, cut through some alleys to save time, and voila. There he was.

He parked his bike and was immediately greeted by two of his friends, Jeremy and Vincent. Jeremy was someone who fit in well with crowds and people, and was good at making people laugh at greatly exaggerated stories of his. Vincent was almost his polar opposite. If it wasn't for school, he'd be a recluse playing World of Warcraft and Counter Strike all day. Thomas often wondered why he hung out with him at all.

"Morning." Jeremy said. "Pumped for math class?" he added sarcastically. Jeremy wasn't a star at maths. "Yeah. I can barely contain myself. Hey Vince, you gotten your CSGO rank yet?" Vince lit up.

Uh oh.

"Yeah man, DMG! Those noobs last night were so fucked on Dust2, I snuck up on them from Long and flashed—"

"Yeahyeah, sorry I asked." Thomas interrupted. The bell rang, followed by groaning coming from crowds of students. "Come on men, into math we go!" Vincent cheered sarcastically. "Right behind you, mon capitaine."

"By the way, where is Samuel?" Thomas asked.

"I dunno. Sick or masturbating." Vincent replied.

"You're the sick one here, Vince."

"Well, that leaves just one option, doesn't it?"

...

The architects of the school were either on strike when it was designed, or they had a thing for white. Whichever it was, the school was about as inspiring as a grocery list.

"Hey Thomas, can I sit here?" a girl's voice asked.

Lucy. Easily the prettiest girl in class, and Thomas' long time crush. Somehow, Thomas thought she knew. She was always really nice to Thomas in difficult classes, and whenever she needed help with anything she just waved her copper red hair at him and looked at him with those beautiful, green eyes, her perfect white smile...

"Thomas?" She asked.

"Wha, oh yeah of course!" he said, snapping out of his daydream.

She smiled and sat down. Her perfume hit Thomas like a train. He was completely under her spell.

"You know, I really like smart guys... " She whispered. "And you're really smart..."

Thomas' heart went haywire. "Y-You think so? Well, I don't mean to brag or anything..."

"mmhhm, you're so humble... I'm sure you can help me with Mr. Howard's assignment later this week...?" she asked in a seductive tone.

"Uh.. Y-yeah sure! No problem!" He whimpered.

She flashed him a big smile. "Great! You're a really good friend!" she said.

On the other side of the classroom, Jeremy and Vincent were shaking their heads. 'Don't do it man.' one of them mouthed.

...

"You need to man up dude." Vincent said. "She's like a succubus, and she's got you all twisted around her finger."

"That, and she's way out of your league anyway. And she knows it." Jeremy added.

"Shut up Vince. I still get more attention from girls than you. And no, your ERP in WoW doesn't count." Thomas said. He sighed. They weren't wrong, but he just wished they were.

"You're too much of a people pleaser man, learn to say no to her. Chicks dig guys with backbone." Jeremy added with a wink.

The rest of the day was normal, and boring. Thomas hated Tuesdays, he'd have math class first (and Lucy's attention), but for the rest of the day he'd be ignored by her.

After school, the three friends decided to head into town for a coffee.

"Do you think girls have a sixth sense?" Thomas said, slurping his coffee.

"They can probably smell fear, but that falls under the original five so... I don't think so." Said Jeremy.

"Maybe they're psychic? They can see into your mind, and know exactly how to manipulate you." Vincent said.

"They only need to look at your pants to know how to manipulate you. I wonder how it works on gay people?" Thomas mused.

"Heh. Speaking of gays, let's go by Samuel's place, see what's gotten up his asshole." Jeremy laughed.

"Sam's gay?" Vincent asked, astounded.

"I dunno, I'd hoped you knew." Jeremy laughed, punching Vince on his shoulder.

They cycled over to Samuel's place, and found a squad of police officers at his house instead. They refused to let them pass at first, but when they said they were Samuel's friend the police quickly relented.

"Can you tell us anything about Mr. Colton's whereabouts? You are his friends after all?" an officer asked. The three shrugged. "What's happened?" Jeremy asked. "He's missing. His parents saw him last this morning, leaving for school, but he never arrived. We're personally suspecting that the convict that escaped in this area had something to do with it. But alas, no trace of the boy. Anyhow, if you know anything, let us know."

Worry spread across their faces.

"So... What happens now?" Thomas said. Jeremy shrugged, and Vincent didn't answer at all.

"I think we better get home then... Maybe he'll turn up soon." Thomas said.

"You think so?"

"I hope so."

Thomas went home with a knot in his stomach. He had decided to check out Samuel's usual places to hang, as well as all the routes he could take to school. It was already getting dark, and it was getting cold too. He decided he'd try one last route before he himself went home, the route through the park. He cycled through streets, keeping his eyes peeled, until he finally reached the park. He got off of his bike, and walked along the paths with it instead. He became increasingly uneasy, he felt as though he was getting too close to something he didn't want to get close to.

He turned a corner, and it became incredibly cold. It was then that he noticed the thin fog that he was walking through, and that it suddenly became much thicker and thicker. It was also very... Bright, somehow. As though he was looking into the sun.

'That's odd.' He thought. 'There wasn't supposed to be any fog today.'

...

Writing this chapter took me all day. Trying to make characters that don't suck is hard, and even now I feel like I've made people too generic. Anyways, I'm not going to give you an update schedule since I really don't know when I'm able to write chapters. Thanks for reading, and let me know what you think. Input and helpful tips are always appreciated.


	3. Chapter 2 : The fox in the fog

Fog? Today? Impossible. Well, not entirely, but no fog like this could be forming right now, not in the evening, and certainly not with today's weather conditions. Cautiously, Thomas inched forward. The more he moved forward, the thicker the fog became. A strange, bright light also emanated from the center. Suddenly, he was totally blinded. He dropped his bike and tried to cover his eyes, when everything became dark again.

He grunted, and began opening his eyes again, trying to adjust to the sudden darkness. Before him stood something... Tall. He thought he saw a tail swishing briefly, and it's silhouette wasn't human at all. Before he could examine it properly though, it fell down on the ground with a grunt. It glowed white, and sort of... Morphed, into something very small.

Thomas approached it. 'No way.' He thought. He heard the stories. The stories about digivolution, and how it worked. The stories about the wild ones appearing in strange fog all those years ago, about the digi destined that defeated the D-Reaper. Could this be an actual digimon?

He kneeled over the creature. It was golden in color, with brilliant blue eyes. It looked like a fluffed up fox. It's breathing was labored, it's entry to the real world obviously hadn't gone smoothly.

"Are you okay?" Thomas asked, not really expecting an answer. The creature looked at him, with something that looked an awful lot like comprehension. Then it closed its eyes, and passed out. Thomas was unsure how to proceed. A digimon... That wasn't possible. The stories varied here and there but were the same in its ending : The digital world was sealed off forever. Even the digi destined were cut off from their partners. So how could this digimon be here?

Thomas decided to push the questions back for later. He picked up the fox, and cycled home. He just hoped that under the cover of darkness nobody would ask any questions. He cycled as fast as he could, the creature was clearly suffering.

As soon as he reached his home, he went into sneak mode. He wasn't going to let his parents see this digimon, so he checked the living room. Dark. He breathed a sigh of relief and went to his room, where he put the creature on his bed. "Uuugh..." it moaned. "Ssh. Don't talk, just rest. It'll be okay." He said in his best comforting voice. He wasn't sure it helped. The creature coughed, and after getting some water for it, Thomas went online to do some research.

Nothing much came up, the governments of the world had tried their best to cover up the whole digimon mess. But one photo of Renamon attracted Thomas' attention. The creature matched the silhouette Thomas saw, and it had the same color scheme. Thomas' heart raced. Could this be _the_ Renamon?

Hours passed. The creature, Viximon apperantly, had fallen asleep or unconscious. Thomas took this time to examine the creature closely, to find that beneath the ragged, dirty and battle scarred fur there was a long, thin scar across it's belly. He wanted to wake it, talk to it... But waking it could be fatal to it. Gently, he picked it up and laid it on a pillow next to his bed. He turned off the lights to sleep, but it wouldn't come. He kept looking at the digimon next to him, turning, thinking. Worrying.

...

"Yes... No... Yes. Will do." A blonde Japanese man said with a gruff voice. He sighed. Sleeping wasn't in the stars for him tonight. He got up from the cot in his office, made himself a strong cup of coffee, and walked to the central computer room at the top of the building. HYPNOS, all the reinforced doors read. They slid open with a hiss as he stepped into the Hypnos nerve center.

Hypnos' computer room looked a lot like it did 14 years ago. Riley insisted they kept the spherical monitors. The pace of technological advancements had done wonders for the supercomputers though, with their multicore processors and powerful new software. 'If only we had this years ago. The D-Reaper would've never stood a chance.' The man thought. He walked up a stairway and entered the sphere. "Riley. I'm going to assume you have something for me." he said.

"I do, and morning to you too Yamachi." she replied smugly. "The DEH called me first. An escapee from digiworld, non-lethal weaponry, I know. I don't get it though, there have been wild ones before this one, why the high alert all of a sudden?" she asked.

Yamachi remained silent. The Digital Empire of Humanity was notoriously vague to Hypnos due to their past sympathy for the Digimon.

"I don't know Riley. Just do what's asked." He said calmly.

Riley sighed. "If I may speak freely, it was—" she started. Yamachi cut her off. "You may not. Get to it." He promptly walked out the door. He knew what she was going to say. That it isn't fair, that there's something fishy about this whole Empire affair, that it never used to be like this. He hated to admit that she was right though. It was so strange, so sudden.. Hypnos, being the Empire's ties to Earth, was always well informed, until the information given was suddenly on a need-to-know basis. At the same time, the amount of wild ones reported increased alongside the amount of violent conflict in the digiworld. 'Could the Empire be losing it's grip?' He wondered. His train of thought was derailed by a voice from his pager.

"Yamachi, I've found the wild one. It's in London, England. Shall I deploy troops?" Riley asked. Yamachi rubbed his forehead and answered : "Deploy them. I will contact the Empire in the meantime, tell them this will all be resolved soon."

"Alright... Yamachi? I don't like this. We're left more and more out of the loop, and now we have a high-alert situation on our hands and we're not even told why this particular digimon is supposed to be captured alive."

"Don't worry, okay? Whatever will happen, I'll make sure we're fine."

"Okay... I love you." she said, and cut the connection. Yamachi managed a thin smile.

Inside he was not so happy though. Worry overcame him, Riley was right. Perhaps he needed to make a stand. Tell the Empire he would not be pushed around, not kept in the dark like a mushroom. He sat behind his desk, and made the connection to the Imperial Citadel. A moment later, a male voice answered.

"Yamachi. How goes the hunt?" the man asked cheerfully. Yamachi despised him.

"Just terrific. We located the wild one in London, and have dispatched forces. Listen, we need to talk. Why do you want—"

"Excellent news then! I will hear from you again when the situation is taken care of, I trust. Take care, Yamachi."

"Listen, I want to know-" Yamachi tried, but the call was ended. He grunted furiously and threw his coffee mug against the wall.

...

Waking up is never pleasant. Waking up to throbbing pain all through your body is perhaps the only thing that sucks more. Viximon opened her eyes. Blackness. Great, she was blind too. Not deaf though, judging from the footsteps she heard. Where was she? She vaguely remembered moving, being carried somewhere. She also noticed she was lying on something soft, warm and thick. She tried to get up, but immediately fell back down, wincing and grunting in pain. "Ughh... Damn..."  
It was useless. Her body was simply ravaged. She heard some shuffling next to her, and then a light flicked on. Not blind. Very nice.

"Hey." A groggy voice asked her. "You're awake." She looked in the direction the voice came from. A boy, in his teens, looking at her with a tired expression. "I thought you were a goner for a few seconds. My name is Thomas." he said. Viximon analyzed Thomas. He didn't look like he had ill intent, and if he did she would probably be dead by now. Dead or captive.

"Can you hear me? Are you okay?" he asked. "Y-Yes." Viximon stammered. "Just shaken." She didn't trust this. "How did you find me?" she asked him.

He chuckled. "I didn't find you so much as stumbled onto you. You were on my route back home in this cloud of mist." A digital field, she thought. "Where am I?" she proceeded to question him. "London. You look pretty messed up... Want to tell me what happened?" he replied to her. London, quite a ways away from her destination. She wasn't sure she was going to tell this Thomas about her escape from the digital world. What if he'd hand her over to the Empire? "I don't want to talk about it, no. I should probably get back though. Thank you for everything." she got up, wobbled, and collapsed back down. Thomas raised an eyebrow. "I think you should stay a while. Rest up. Whatever kicked you around so badly would probably do it again."

"I didn't get kicked around, I...!" she began, but stopped herself. Once again, she thought to herself it was probably unwise to tell him everything.

"You what?" he asked. "Nothing." she quickly said. Thomas let out a sigh. "Look, I want to help, but I'm also very curious to know how you got here... I thought the Digital World was sealed off?" Viximon hesitated, and told Thomas she didn't know.

Thomas quickly abandoned his questioning. He told her they should both be getting some sleep, turned off the light and laid back down. He was being kept out of the loop, that much was clear to him, but on the other hand he was too fascinated by a real digimon to get angry.

* * *

Hey everyone. Sorry for the very, VERY long hiatus. I was hit with a severe case of reallifeitis. I was also suffering from some writer's block. Anyhow, if you have tips, comments or whatever feel free to post them in the reviews. I'd more than love to hear what I could do better.


	4. Chapter 3 : An unreal bond

_Hey everyone, MD here. Just wanted to apologize for the months of nothing. School and internships have hit me like a dump truck and it left me without much time to write. I'm back now though, so hey. Let's go._

 _As for Gigabyte's tip about Jeremy and Vincent, I don't know what I'll do with them yet. Maybe they'll get a partner, maybe they'll get a big role, maybe they won't. I'm leaning towards them having something to do in this story, but it'll be rather minor._

An alarm clock sounded, rousing man and mon from their slumber. Viximon awoke, feeling a lot worse for the wear.

"Uhh... "

she tried. She should not have stayed here with this Thomas. She should have been in Tokyo, with her contacts. She would've found a partner there, among one of the friends of the original digidestined perhaps. She'd be anchored, safe and would've stood a chance.

That would be impossible now. She couldn't even stand. She would probably expire here, in the room of this Thomas person. She would wither away or found by the Emperor. Her fate was sealed, and she would never see the Empire fall...

"Hey Viximon, want some breakfast?" Thomas asked.

But she would at least see breakfast. The mere mentioning of the word made her realize she was famished. Perhaps some food would also do her health some good.

"Yes, I would like that." she said weakly. "You will have to carry me though..."

Thomas smiled and picked her up with her pillow. She felt horrible. The once proud Renamon, forced to be carried around like a sickly child...

Thomas asked what kind of food she liked, and her shame was quickly replaced by hunger. "Anything." she just said. It was true, anything would go right now.

As Thomas made a typical English breakfast (which he admitted was all he could really make), she pondered her situation. She was alive, which is always nice. This Thomas kid had had plenty of time to kill her or hand her over to the authorities, and if the Empire so much as heard the word "digimon", they would've been here hours ago. She was safe, for now. And this Thomas character wasn't all bad for making her food either.

Thomas was also in thought. He wasn't sure what to do, really. If this was the Renamon that felled the D-Reaper and the Deva's, she would have been taken already. Rika Nonaka would probably want her partner home with her, and Renamon would probably wish to return to her.

It also didn't help that she was dying. How does one nurse a digimon back to health anyway?

He served Viximon her breakfast and decided to wait with questions a while. Let her eat first, maybe it will help.

...

Sirens and police tape made the park a rather busy place this morning. The entire area had been locked up for a police investigation regarding the "escaped convict." People murmured and watched as they passed by, wondering if they caught the criminal in question.

The officers swept through the park, constantly muttering something about being left out of the loop. Yamaki contacted their commanding officer and didn't even tell him what digimon they were hunting, and that they themselves didn't even know.

On site was Officer Markus, a very unremarkable man for all intents and purposes. He was the man in charge of this vague search and capture operation. He had had a very bad morning. All of his men were groggy, tired, and uneasy. None of them liked how their work was going the past few months.

He sighed, and observed as his men searched the park. He was to report to Yamaki every hour. It was 7 AM, and he had reported 3 times now. Nothing.

"Sir?" one of his men asked. "We've swept the park twice now. When are we calling it quits?"

"Until we find something." Markus replied. "And unless we find something, this will be a very long day. HQ pinpointed the fugitive's bio emergence here. If the scanners aren't picking anything up, then we're late as it is."

"But sir, we did find a trace of the field earlier. It's just that there's no tracks of anything leaving. Some dog prints, footprints and some bike trails. Maybe it already died?"

"No. HQ would've seen the data explosion. The target is in London. We just have to find out where it went. Maybe we can pull up some CCTV records somewhere, maybe follow some of those people to their homes. We're not done here, Paul. Not by a long shot. If all else fails we can-"

"Sir! Come check this out!" An agent called.

Markus rushed over. His men were professionals, they wouldn't call him unless it was something they could use.

Upon arriving at a secluded spot, Markus saw a bike trail with some footprints in the mud. Along with... Something small. Oddly shaped. Markus picked it up and saw what it was.

A communication earpiece. He contacted Yamaki. "Sir, we've got something."

...

Viximon had devoured everything on her plate with surprising vigor. Thomas pushed his plate in her direction, and she promptly devoured that too.

Thomas couldn't hold his curiosity in any longer.

"Viximon, I wanted to ask you something." He began. "Are you—"

" _The_ Renamon? No. Nobody knows where she is though. She hasn't been seen for years, and according to some she is dead." She answered.

"Oh."

"I don't sound like her either now, do I?"

Thomas thought for a second. Viximon's voice was lighter, more teen-like. Still. Easy mistake.

"I suppose not... How did you even get here? The digital world was closed, and even the digidestined were unable to even talk to their partners."

Viximon was quiet for a bit. "You don't know, do you?" she asked him.

"No, know what?"

Viximon's tone became more serious. "The digital world has been open for years. It's just that your governments have kept it from all of you, probably. After the D-Reaper cataclysm, most of our world was destroyed, as you most likely know." she told him. She paused for a second. "But when it was rebuilt again, several years back, the barriers between the worlds began to erode. It allowed for travel between the worlds again. Then your governments began to try and block everything off again. Probably to try and prevent another digimon crisis."

Thomas was silent.

"And now we try to loosen their grip in the digital world."

Thomas remained silent, and then asked "So.. You're trying to get back to the real world for... What? What's the point?"

"Simple. We want to go and be with our creators. All digimon wish to go to the real world, if only to be... Real."

"But why be with us?"

"Well... I don't know. Perhaps it has something to do with the fact that humans empower digimon in a lot of ways. And all the tamers in the world have felt empowered by their partners too."

"Do you have a tamer?"

"No. But I was supposed to get one after..."

"After?"

"Nothing."

Thomas tried to push it a bit, but Viximon didn't budge. They watched television together and made small talk. Viximon opened up to Thomas a bit, and after a while Thomas felt a lot more at ease with her.

Still. He had school in a little bit. He wanted to stay with her, get to know her more.

Thomas stood up and grabbed the phone. "What are you doing?" Viximon asked in a worried tone. "Calling in sick from school. I want to talk with you, I think you have a lot you can tell me."

Thomas picked up the phone. A continued beep sounded. The phone lines are out?

"Hey Viximon, do digimon interfere with communications equipment?"

"No, why?"

Thomas' worried expression told Viximon something was wrong. Thomas turned on the radio. "... Lines have been shut down due to an escaped convict. If you have any information, 911 will remain functional. Warning, phone and radio lines have been-" click. Off.

Viximon felt cold. They were on to her. So soon?

"Thomas. I need to go."

"Why, what's – " BANG.

BANG BANG.

The door was being bashed down. A loud CRACK was heard, followed by a clanking sound... And the hissing of smoke.

"What the-!" Thomas started.

"They're looking for me Thomas! You have to give me up, for your own sake!"

"I'm not giving you to them! Who knows what they'll do!"

Viximon swallowed. She knew what they'd do.

Thomas grabbed Viximon and ran out the back door. Sirens sounded in the street. They heard shouting. Looking back he saw flashlights through the smoke.

"They haven't covered the backdoor yet!" he panted. "Maybe we can escape!"

"Thomas, please, save yourself! You're no good to anyone dead! Besides, where are we going to run?" Viximon yelled. Thomas didn't know. He just had to. Finally he had something more going for him than just math class and being a nerd, more than just playing video games. He wasn't going to let Viximon go just yet.

He ran through alleyways, side paths, shortcuts he knew. He just hoped the police didn't. He ran through streets, towards the park.

"Thomas, where are we going?" Viximon asked.

"The park. That's where I found you, maybe that's where I can send you back." Thomas answered. "It's the only shot you have, right?"

Thomas ran as fast as he could, trying to stick to back alleys. Even the streets had officers looking, asking around, looking around. But at the rate he was running, he would likely be much too slow to ever get anywhere before those cops would.

...

Even though it was around dinner time when he arrived, the park was probably the busiest it had been all year. The park was surrounded by black vans and officers. And those officers were not looking like the kind that would be fooled by throwing marbles under their feet. They were clad in grey body armor and had rifles in their hands. On the side of their closed helmets was an abbreviation : DEH. What does that even mean?

"Okay... Is there another place we can go?" Thomas asked her. Viximon thought for a bit.

"Well..." She started. "Places with a lot of children, young minds, minds with imagination and such. Playgrounds, fairs..."

"School." Thomas realized. Their only shot. Her only shot.

He gave the park a wide berth, as well as any other place he would frequent. They knew him, and probably all his spots too. This was confirmed because there were more police officers asking questions at a coffee shop he would often go to. After at least another hour of feverishly walking and looking over his shoulder, he reached the school. Him, and two other figures.

Vincent and Jeremy.

"Thomas, dude." Jeremy said. "There are cops all over looking for you. They said you knew-" Jeremy paused. He saw Viximon.

"What is that." He just said.

"Is that Renamon? From the stories?" Vincent asked. "Holy shit! No wonder they're all over!"

"Firstly, it's Viximon at the moment. And second, before you ask, no, Thomas is not my tamer." Viximon said.

"Oh. Well, coulda been." Vince said.

"Thomas, look man. I don't know what sort of relationship you guys have, but there are soldiers—" Jeremy started.

"Soldiers in the park, yeah. DEH. Let's go inside the courtyard, please? So what do you think DEH means?" Thomas asked.

"I don't know, but they've got guns man. This is serious. Maybe you should just give her up?" Jeremy said.

"Nah man, this is much too awesome to just drop at the sight of a gun. I mean, she's a digimon, she can fight them off right? You'd be special Thom!" Vincent said with a grin. He gave Viximon a weird look, and Thomas was really glad Vincent uses incognito mode on his computer.

"If I may say something? Your friend is right Thomas. You shouldn't do this. Save yourself, please." Viximon said. She suddenly looked up, towards the courtyard. "Thomas... A portal is emerging. In the courtyard."

"How? Did we set it off?" Vincent said.

"I don't know." Viximon said. "But it'll be opening in a moment. Maybe you were right Thomas, maybe—"

"You there! Freeze!" A loud, deep voice yelled. A light from a flashlight suddenly shone on Viximon and Thomas. He reached for his comm device. "Command, the suspect is in sight. Rendezvous with my location ASAP." he clicked off his comm. "Sir, I need you to put the digimon down. She is dangerous and possibly hostile."

Thomas was perplexed. They thought he was innocent. They don't want him, just her! But... He wanted her too...

"Sir! Put the digimon down now!" he ordered.

"No!" Thomas yelled.

"Thomas what are you doing?! Do what he says, please!" Viximon said.

"I won't leave you!"

"Thomas, you and I will both die! Save yourself!"

"Put the digimon down!"

"Do what he says man! He's got a fucking gun!"

"No! I won't let you hurt her!"

"Thomas!"

A weight fell into his pocket, emanating a light through his jeans. Viximon's eyes went wide. Thomas' heart raced. He knew this story too. The story of the digivice. Did he feel that strongly about a digimon? One that he barely knew?

He reached into his pocket. Everyone, even the soldier, was frozen. He felt plastic on his fingers, and the thing began to beep. He pulled it out of his pocket. It was just like the ones from the digidestined, with a deep purple color on the ring.

"Command, the digimon's accomplice is in posession of a digivice, repeat, he—" The soldier began, when the digivice began to beep and emit a bright light. Viximon glowed too.

"Thomas, put me down." she whispered.

Thomas complied. A light enveloped Viximon, and her skin seemed to peel off of her. Her shape morphed, and skin began re-attaching itself to her. The glow subsided.

Before them stood Renamon.

"Oh shit." Jeremy said.  
"Oh shit!" Vincent cried, grinning.  
"C-Command, the suspect has... Evolved!" the soldier said. "Stay where you are, or I will open fire!"

Renamon chuckled. "Will you now?" She made a taunting step forward.

BABABANG! A trio of gunshots sounded. But before the sounds reached Thomas' ears, Renamon was gone. She had appeared behind and kicked the soldier in the head, and he had slammed into the ground. She then walked over to Thomas.

"Thomas." she said with her probably kindest tone. "Your bravery saved me, thanks to you I can live to tell about this, but... I want you to stay here. The digital world is dangerous, inhospitable. And as your partner I am sworn to protect you... I can't let you go there with a clear conscience."

Vincent spoke up. "Dude! Thom, you... You're a tamer! A real one! To Renamon!" Clearly he had not heard Renamon at all earlier. Or he didn't care. "This is so, so badass... Lucy will be all over you man, for sure."

"Lucy...?" Renamon asked.

"Yeah, his longtime—" Vincent began, before being promptly silenced by Jeremy. Violently.

"Right. Look Thomas, Renamon may be right. If the digital world is anything like Takato and his friends said in the interviews, you may just want to not go there."

"I know... Renamon... You're right. But I don't want to leave you, not now, not after—"

Renamon silenced him with a finger, and tried to speak with a friendly tone. "I know. The bond of partners is strong but... It's just not—"

Klang. Floodlights. Trucks rushing in, helicopters flying low over them. Troops disembarked, aiming their laser-sighted guns at Renamon. Thomas noted that he wasn't being targeted. Either he was not a threat, or they still thought he was innocent. They heard the clangs of smoke grenades. Renamon appeared behind Thomas, and shielded his eyes and ears. He heard a bang. A flashbang, he thought, from Vince' game.

"Renamon, this is Markus of the DEH. You are surrounded. Step away from the boy and get down on your knees."

Jeremy looked terrified and shaken. Although being involved with an interdimensional fugitive and being hit by a flash grenade makes for a cool story, he wasn't sure he wanted guns pointed at him.

Vincent however was in awe of it all. Actual counter terrorists and all that.

"Renamon, step away from him!" the voice shouted.

"No! I won't let you take her!" Thomas cried.

"Thomas, thank you for everything you did for me. But it's over. Please, as your partner I beg of you : do what they say, and live."

...

Markus swore internally. Goddammit. Once he got the report the kid got a digivice, he knew it was all screwed. He had read the briefings on digimon tamers, and how strongly they felt about their partners. It was likely that whatever Renamon did to this Thomas guy, would make him cling to her like she was his world.

"Kid, please. She's dangerous, we can—"

His mic cut out. For a second, silence. Then a familiar voice came over the comms.

"Thomas. It is Thomas, right? My name is Yamaki. Listen to me. Renamon is a criminal, a fugitive, and a terrorist. She has killed people, humans like you and me, just to get here. I know that the bond you two share now is very strong, and will make you go through fire for her. But I can assure you : your bond, your feelings for her, and she herself are not real. She made you feel like this. We can break this bond, Thomas. We can fix this. Just walk away from her, and we will take care of you. You will be okay if you co-operate." Yamaki said.

The boss always had a way with words.

...

Thomas hesitated. Renamon, his friends (save Vincent) and Yamaki all urged him to surrender. He then remembered something Takato Matsuki had said in an interview. Follow your heart.

His heart said he should protect his partner.

But should he? The man said it was all fake. All an illusion. And if this was _the_ Yamaki that helped during the digimon crisis, he'd know.. Right?

"Thomas, please. I care about you, and I want you to survive. Do what they say. Please." Renamon said.

"Thomas, there are some people that wanted to speak with you." Yamaki said.

"Thomas, dear! Please, whatever this Renamon is, don't do what she says! Your father and I are on our way, we're worried sick about you!" His mother said.

Mom. When had she ever cared. She was never home anyway.

Then, a light appeared behind them. The portal Renamon spoke of was opening. Her ticket into the digital world.

"Sir, the portal is opening up. We need to act now." Markus said.

"I know, try to get the boy out of the kill-zone." Yamaki said.

"Renamon, the portal! We can go, together!" Thomas said.

"Thomas... Why do you want this so bad?" Renamon asked.

"Because..." Thomas said. He didn't know.

"Thomas." Yamaki said. "Don't give in to her."

Thomas looked around. He saw lasers all around them. He stood in front of Renamon, like a shield.

"Thomas you'll kill yourself!"  
"Thomas don't!"  
"Thom, look out man!"  
"Honey please!"

"Last chance Thomas. Don't do this. Don't die for her. She's not real."

Thomas' internal conflict reached a boiling point. Then, suddenly, clarity came over him.

"She's real to me." he spoke.

And with those words, he jumped backwards, pushing himself and Renamon through the portal.  
He would be more than the nerd of the class. Because for once in his life, he felt like he had a true friend. And that all of his friends and family cried out, that gunshots echoed throughout the school courtyard, didn't mean a thing to him.

 _Phew. That was something. I thought I'd make something long to make up for my hiatus. I hope you liked it. If you have thoughts, please leave them in a review._

 _-MD_


	5. Chapter 4 : Agents and Empires

_Just to make sure there's no confusion here, I will be using the information provided by the English version of Tamers. That means that Jenrya is called Henry for example. Also, since it's never specified when Tamers takes place, I will assume it takes place in the year it ran on TV, which is 2001.  
With that out of the way, let's get going._

Gunfire echoed through the courtyard. Then the clinking of empty shells. Then silence.

Markus looked to the now closing portal and let out his breath. They got away. His comm device buzzed, Yamaki asking for a report. Markus knew Yamaki had watched the whole thing, so why he even bothered was a mystery. Probably best he didn't think about it too much.

"The subject escaped sir. If you haven't already seen it, the subject was a Renamon." Markus sighed. He hated his life at the moment.  
"Yes, I saw. I'll have the files dug up on the boy that was with her. There's also the matter of the two kids still on site, and of course his parents. This is a fine mess, Markus."  
"Yes sir. But I didn't expect the kid to pull the stunt he did."  
"I never said this was your doing. I didn't think he would protect her so... valiantly, either. Perhaps we need to bring in some experts on this, maybe there's a way to make him see reason."  
"You mean the three?"  
"Exactly. In the-... Yes... Yes sir. Markus, after you've cleaned up the site and issued the usual bribes to the witnesses, you are to report to HQ. The DEH wants to talk to you."  
Markus' heart sank into his stomach.  
"Did they say why?"  
"No. But I don't envy you."  
Yamaki cut the comms. Markus buried his face in his hands. This was it, he was going to get framed for something and spend life in jail. He had a few minutes of freedom left though. He still had to shake the kids out of their shock. Get cleanup teams going. May as well take his time.

...

Yamaki shook his head. The poor agent had to face that DEH representative he loathed so passionately. How could this whole thing have gone so wrong? Was this the digimon's plan? To find a tamer? The digimon's grand design was clear from the get-go. Humans invaded their world and began to exert their power over them, and now they want their world back. But what could one boy possibly be to all the digimon? To the DEH?

He pushed these questions aside for now. He gave Tally instructions to keep monitoring the digital world for any other digimon that might come through, and to contact Rika Nonaka and ask if her digivice had gone off. After, Yamaki went home to his apartment. He crawled into bed next to Riley. At least their relationship hadn't gone to hell just yet.

Sleep wouldn't come however. How could it. So many questions continually bugged him. Was this Rika's partner? How could she have gotten a new tamer? And why did she need or want one anyway? There were plenty of mega digimon around in the digital world, so it's not just for biomerging.

The thinking at last managed to tire him out, Yamaki realized, smiling faintly. He hoped that this whole mess would be cleared up soon and things would go back to the good old days. He quickly sent a text to the three kids that they should all just come to the HQ in the morning if they can. Command would probably have his head, but he didn't care. It was time he took a more active stance on this whole thing.

Yamaki smiled. He still thought of them as kids, but they were all well in their 20's. Adults with jobs, wives or husbands and normal lives. Not exactly children anymore. He wondered if they still thought about the whole digimon affair. When the whole thing was finally over, they were constantly harassed by the press, fans, people that wanted to get a partner themselves. It would be years before they would finally get some peace.

Yamaki sighed. He missed the days with the kids. When he was in the loop, when he could do more than just be cleanup for some self-proclaimed "emperor" and his followers that never gave him a straight answer.

...

Markus walked into the police station. Who would've thought that a small, unassuming police station housed a base for agents that were meant to chase and apprehend criminals from another dimension in the basement?

The secretary behind the desk looked tired and bored. Clearly she had to pull overtime for this. She told Markus that he could just go on down and get his business done so she could go home. He smirked and told her he'd make this quick, trying to hide the fact he was shaking.

Markus walked into a small room. Dark, cramped and silent. A table, a chair and a computer screen in the center of the room were lit by one single light bulb from the ceiling. Empire sure loved their theatrics. The screen popped to life, and an awful, cheerful voice came from the speakers.

"Andrew Markus. Age, 35. Married for 3 years to Vanessa Markus, but no children? Interesting. Oh don't mind me, just looking over some things. Take a seat, please." the man said. It gave Markus the chills. They knew everything. His full name, age. His wife. That his wife had her ovaries removed because of cancer was probably no mystery to them either.

"That would be me, sir." he replied coldly.

"We know. There's a picture in your file too. So, Andrew. May I call you such? What happened in the school courtyard tonight?" the DEH representative inquired.

"Surely there has been a report on the situation sir."

"I want to hear it from you."

Markus sighed. He did that a lot lately.

"The subject, now known to be a Renamon, had chosen to form a bond with one Thomas Thorn. On the courtyard of the school mister Thorn attended, agent Hill had attempted to apprehend the subject, when mister Thorn bonded with Renamon and became her tamer. The bond they had formed allowed her to digivolve to-"

"Digivolve? She was Renamon already, correct?"

"No sir. Agent Hill reported she was small before, likely a Viximon. She only digivolved to Renamon after the bond was formed and mister Thorn had acquired his digivice."

The representative nodded. "Interesting. Go on?"

"Not long after communication with Agent Hill was cut, we arrived on the scene. We attempted to apprehend Renamon and convince mister Thorn to abandon her. We failed, and mister Thorn threw himself against her to enter the digital world. This confirms that mister Thorn is indeed a tamer, and has completed the bonding procedure in a very rapid pace."

The representative took in the story. Finally he asked : "Have you read the files on tamers and their partners?"

"No sir."

"I see. Well, see that you do. I'm giving Yamaki clearance to give you those files. And the files on mr Thorn. And the files on the resistance movement, on the DEH, and on the digital world."

...

Yamaki's DEH issued comm-device lit up. He groggily unhooked his arm from Riley and checked. He looked at the screen with a puzzled look.

It said that Captain Andrew Markus was to receive all information about Tamers, the DEH, Hypnos, the digital world, everything. Yamaki's confusion was only increased by the 'captain' prefix. Then it dawned on him what the DEH was going to do.

"Oh no."

...

"Sir?" Markus asked. "Why give me all this?"

The representative laughed. "Why, isn't that obvious?"

"No sir."

"Hahaha, well, this _is_ your mistake. And you're going to fix it for us. We read your file, Andrew. You and your team are some of the best in your field. And we feel as though your talents should be used more productively. As such, by order of Emperor Valdius himself, you are hereby promoted to captain. Congratulations. Furthermore, you and your team are to report to Tokyo for a briefing with Mitsuo Yamaki. He will fill you and your team in on any missing details."

The man paused. Markus held his breath.

"Then you will enter the digital world, and your mission shall begin. You will hunt down Renamon and her new tamer, and bring them to the imperial capital. Once this mission is completed you may return home to your wife. You will also be receiving a very generous sum of money when you complete your mission."

Markus briefly considered what this meant. "And if I refuse?"

"Then you will be charged with something we have yet to dream up that will get you life in prison."

...

Yamaki's hurry to get out of bed had woken Riley up. She tiptoed her way through the hall and found her husband on the couch, smoking.

"Mitsuo, put that down." she said. "We quit, remember?"

"I know Riley. It's just... The Empire's gone too far this time. Did you see the ruckus the latest wild one caused? Well, the agent that was responsible for her apprehension is now getting a one-way ticket into the digital world."

Riley swallowed. "You don't know that. Surely they-"

"The Empire knows full well that the agent is likely to die there Riley!" Yamaki yelled. "The Empire also knows that there's no possibility for them to lose this! It's cleanup! If Markus succeeds he's a hero, and if he dies he's a martyr! They're just using him to further their goals! Just like they're using all of us... I never signed on for this... I just..."

Yamaki buried his face in his hands. Riley said nothing. She couldn't say anything. She could only try to comfort her husband. She knew he was right, she just wished he wasn't.

"Mitsuo... We'll contact the three in the morning, okay? We'll let them know. About everything. They can help..."

Yamaki remained silent. He could only hope.

...

Markus knew that the rep wasn't lying. He'd probably end up framed and in jail.

"I accept." he simply answered.

"Good!" the rep smiled. "You and your team will be outfitted with DEH armors and weapons when you arrive here. For your mission you will also be given command over a Chaser class corvette, which should serve you nicely. Is everything clear to you, captain?" the DEH rep inquired.

"Yes sir."

"Good. Just one more thing, captain." the representative's face and tone became more serious. "Did you notice anything about the Renamon?"

"Like what, sir?"

"Scars, voice, abnormal clothing, symbols or colors?"

Markus thought for a bit. "Not that I know of, sir. It was too dark to tell."

The rep nodded. "I see. Well, then, enjoy your promotion and your flight to Tokyo captain. We'll see you soon."

The window zapped to black. The newly appointed captain Markus sat in the room for a while, contemplating on how to break the news to his team. He was willing to bet that they weren't all too excited for a trip into the digital world. Neither was he, he had to admit.

He got up from his chair. The secretary was already gone, having just left a note with a key saying 'Lock up. Put under mat.' He took a deep breath, trying to stop his shaking. He stepped out of the building, did what the paper said, and got in his car to drive home. At the very least he'd get one more night with his wife. He'd worry about his team in the morning.

Right now, he just wanted to be with his wife.

...

The holographic screen closed. The DEH rep looked to the figure that stood behind it during his chat.

"What now, sir?" he asked the figure.

"Now we wait for Captain Markus' arrival. But first, I think it's high time we asked our newest agent what he thought of all this. If his friend is still as innocent as he thought." A rich voice said. "I'm certain that his familiarity with our new objective will prove to be invaluable."

A boy, aged maybe 15, stood beside the armored and robed figure.

"So." the figure asked, nodding to the representative, who turned on a large screen with footage of what happened in the school. "What do you think?"

The boy watched with a dropped jaw as a tall, yellow fox kicked the cameraman in the head. He winced as the camera suddenly jerked to the ground.

"I think that Thomas can be saved, sir." he answered slowly. "He doesn't know what he's doing... Right?"

The figure smiled. "My idea exactly. With our resources and your information, he'll be back home in no time. Now, back to the question before this show. Do you wish to help us save him?"

The boy contemplated it for a moment, then said with conviction : "Yes sir. I do."

The DEH rep smiled, and said "Excellent. We'll begin fitting you for a uniform and setting you up with weapons training immediately. As for where you'll be helping, you will join captain Markus. The Emperor has also seen fit to give you piloting training. As for housing, you will be given living quarters of class A6 until you can be transferred to the ship you're stationed on. Now, do you have any questions before we begin your registration process?"

The boy shook his head. "No sir."

"Excellent. We'll begin then. For the record, your name is Samuel, correct?"


	6. Chapter 5 : No going back

The sound of computers blipping and beeping made Thomas' head spin. He was also hit with a severe sense of vertigo. Gravity had lost its grip on him, and he became a bit nauseous.

"Where... Where are we? Is this it?" he asked.

"No." Renamon simply answered. She had her arms clasped around Thomas as they floated through a cloud of data. Everywhere there was computer jargon. Thomas recognized some of it. Hexadecimal codes, IP addresses, C++ commands, the sorts. He wondered if it was possible to be allergic to data. His arms itched with a vengeance.

"Then where are we?"

"The digital world. But this is not the actual world. That's coming up ahead." Renamon told him.

Thomas looked up. He saw a bright, greenish wall of light coming up to them with alarming speed. He felt panic lump up in his throat, and he began to sweat and breathe heavily. Renamon squeezed him.

"It's okay." she whispered sweetly. "I'll protect you. Just remain calm, okay?"

Thomas nodded, and closed his eyes. Turbulence shook the duo violently.

"Hold on!" Renamon cried.

Suddenly, the shaking stopped, followed by the rushing of wind. He opened his eyes and was immediately forced to close them again.

He remembered this too. All the tamers told of the fall into the digital world, all with... Varying levels of enthusiasm. They fell from Earth, all the way down to the digital world, somehow surviving. He opened his eyes again, squinting and trying to see.

He saw nothing. Blackness. Was it night? There were stars all over though. Flashes like lightning in the distance, and what looked like clouds. He briefly forgot his panic, and looked around. He thought he could see cities down below... And up? And to the sides? He couldn't make anything out, but it all looked so... Off. Surreal. And yet at the same time it looked so incredibly real. He didn't quite know what to say. "

"Thomas, forgive me for this!" Renamon suddenly cried in his ear, before choking him, and making him black out.

...

"Thomas? Thomas! Wake up!" a teen girl's voice said.

"Ugh..." He groaned. "Renamon... Are we alive?"

Renamon shrugged. "Do we look dead?"

Thomas shook his head and thought they were still falling. He didn't quite know what he was seeing, or how to process it. Judging from the lack of rushing air, he had landed.

Thomas saw lakes. Oceans. Deserts, mountains, forests. Savannahs, tundra's. He could see clouds drifting over them, dark and menacing, white and fluffy. He could see a massive storm over a particular section of the digital world.

"It's... A sphere!" he exclaimed. "A dyson sphere!"

He didn't know what else to say. He couldn't stop looking at everything, at how wondrous it was. Like a child he just stood and stared, mouth agape.

He then noticed something funny. Something out of place. A massive, black rift in the world. Like a wound of sorts. And a small, blue, sun-like sphere in the center. Wait a moment...

"Is that... Earth? Up there?" he asked. It was the size of an orange from where he stood. Renamon stood next to him and nodded.

"It is."

"It's tiny..." he said, perplexed.

"It's actually a third of the real Earth." she simply answered.

"Wait... So... How massive is this world? And how far did we fall?" Thomas asked, with his face showing a mixture of wonder and astonishment.

"Well, this Earth is some four-thousand kilometers in diameter. Given that we fell at some, what, four-thousand meters per second—"

"four-thousand." Thomas just said.

"Will you let me finish, please? Thank you. We fell for... thirty minutes? So that would put us at... Some... Seven and a half thousand kilometers distance from it? It would make this world about forty-five thousand kilometers in circumference."

Thomas said nothing. He looked at the trees surrounding him, and remembered the fall.

"How are we not dead? And why did you knock me out?!"

"You are not dead because I knocked you out. The digital world operates... Differently from the real world. You knew that a fall with such speed would kill us. So I knocked you out, and left your unconscious body to decide. Since it didn't know it had to die from such a fall, you survived it."

Thomas scratched his arms.

"Besides." she continued. "That stunt you pulled made you deserving of what you got. What were you thinking?" she asked. Her tone was cold and serious.

Thomas wanted to answer, and then he saw what caused his itch. Bullet holes on her gloves and arms, exactly on where his own arm itched. They nailed her pretty good as she protected him.

"I... I don't know.." he weakly replied.

"Well, that's rich. Because you just threw all your chances of escaping this world out the window. The Empire will see you as an enemy now, and that means I am stuck with you."

Renamon stood chest-to-chest with him. Well, stood? Towered rather. Just now it dawned on Thomas just how tall she was. He wasn't particulary short, sporting 1,82 meters. But she was probably a head taller than him.

"What do you mean, _stuck_ with me?" Thomas asked her with a sour tone.

Renamon pointed at his forearms. "That itching? It comes from my wounds. We're connected now. If I get hurt, you will feel it. It will just itch now, but it will get worse. Eventually, it may become crippling pain when I get hit. And it goes double for me if you get hurt." she said.

"What happens if one of us dies?"

Renamon was quiet for a moment.

"Will that transfer too?"

"Yes. It will. If I die, the trauma to you will likely be extreme, possibly even fatal if our bond keeps developing..."

"And... If I die?"

Renamon took a deep breath and closed her eyes. "The death of a tamer is invariably lethal to their digimon. It's happened that a digimon hated their tamer, and lashed out at them. Both would be dead. That's why I can't just leave you here, or give you to the Empire. When you saved my life, you chose my side. And that makes you their enemy."

Thomas was speechless. He didn't know what to say to her.

"Renamon, I... I'm so sorry, I didn't know... Is there any way-"

"To undo it? The Empire can do it. They have devices for it. But they will likely shoot you on sight, or use you as bait to get to me now, if that wasn't already their intention." She sighed.

"No, Thomas. We're stuck together. And our only option is to find the resistance. There is just one problem with that."

"What's that?"

"See that black rift? Over there, just over the horizon? That is the Scar. Beyond it lies the rest of the digital world. The Darklands, the Deeplands, or just the Deep Web to some of the Empire's soldiers. That is where all the digimon that cannot or will not face the Empire's tyranny go."

Thomas looked at the Scar. It was so far away, if this world was really as huge as Renamon said it is, it would take weeks, months to get there... And they'd have to cross at least three climates to get there. The forest they were in, a small patch of snowy mountains, and a desert. Thomas took a breath.

"We'd better go and meet your resistance then." he finally said. He looked around some more. "They never said how beautiful it was here..."

"Who didn't?"

"The tamers, the ones that fought Zhuqiaomon and the D-Reaper. They had interviews done on them, and they told of their foray into the digital world... Wait a moment, how did _they_ survive the fall?"

Renamon thought for a moment. "I think it is because they were children. And that the digital world was older, less advanced then. But Thomas, please, let's start walking while we talk. It's nice and quiet here now, but the Empire is quick on their feet. They'll be here soon, and we want to not be here when they are."

Thomas agreed, and they set out towards their goal, hoping that they would get there before the Empire knew what was up

...

Renamon wasn't going to be slow about things it seemed.

"Renamon, slow down a bit will you?" Thomas whined.

"No. We need to stay ahead of the Empire." she replied.

"But if we need to get to the Scar... Why are we taking such a detour?"

Renamon stopped and spun on her heel.

"Listen Thomas. The Empire is looking for us. Now, they won't respond immediately, which is good for us. But they won't be long. And when they know they're supposed to look for us, where do you think they'll suspect we're going?"

Thomas swallowed.

"The Scar."

"Exactly. Which means we have to take a detour, to buy us time, throw them off. We also have to get as far away from this landing site as we can, because they will find it. Quickly."

She spun around again.

"So keep pace will you? Unless, of course, you have a digivolution card?"

Thomas shook his head. "No, sorry... I have no cards at all. Governments around the world agreed it would be best to ban digimon cards, in the hope that eventually, the whole thing would be forgotten again. It's not illegal to have them, just to sell them... Which makes them extremely hard to come by." He said.

Renamon nodded. She understood. The digimon, too, wanted to forget the D-Reaper incident.

"So you have nothing?" She asked.

Thomas shook his head.

Renamon's expression softened a bit. "That's okay," she said in a warm tone. "You know what? The resistance has tons. And who knows. You may make a good tamer yet. Just... Promise me to try, okay?"

Thomas nodded eagerly.

...

On the plane to Tokyo, captain Andrew Markus had briefed his team on the situation they'd be getting into. It was a quiet trip. Nobody looked forward to actually entering the lion's den like this.

Markus sighed. He decided to check the schematics for the corvette that was being built for him.

CHASER-S CLASS LIGHT CORVETTE  
ID : DEHCS001 Kitsune, the file read.

Markus frowned. Lay it a bit thicker, will you. He continued to pour over the drawings. Not bad, One-hundred and twelve meters long, twenty-two meters wide without rotors, sixty with the rotors. Four rotors, capable of tilting, kept the ship aloft. Two apparently enhanced engines on the back for propulsion. It also had a specially lengthened back section, with a docking collar for a rapier-class dogfighter. In the bottom, the cargo deck, half of the cargo bay had been sacrificed for special prisoner transport. On the top, two AA turrets that could be operated from within the ship, and missile racks. The bridge, sticking out in front of the ship, also housed the main guns. Two heavy machine turrets on its sides, operated by the co-pilot, and the HAILSTORM-MK1 cannon hanging on its bottom, operated from the captain's seat or the co-pilot's seat.

Markus was impressed. A special ship for him and his crew to use, brand new. Designed specifically for this mission. At least they would be riding in style. He got dossiers on everything, armor, his ship, the rapier fighter, their guns. Weapons designed for exclusive human use. The handgrips were tight enough that most digimon couldn't get their hands in them, but humans could use them comfortably. A forty round magazine fed into an automatic firing mechanism based on the Kalashnikov. The design of the weapon was also tuned to proper recoil control... If you could hold the thing properly. Something a digimon could not.

He passed the files around to his team, who gave approving nods. He figured he'd close his eyes for a moment, at least until they'd reach Tokyo. It was after a dreamless sleep that his team woke him. They were there.

A convoy of black vans waited for them. It was in the dead of night in Tokyo. The suits didn't say a word as the opened the doors and gestured for them to get in.

It was a silent trip. The sheer unease that oozed off of the situation was enough to stuff even the cheeriest of the crew.

"Where are we going?" Markus asked. He knew, but the silence had to be broken.

"You know." one of the suits said. Then silence again. 'A conversationalist, then.' Markus thought.

After a few moments the vans pulled up to a familiar looking tower. The Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building. The tower where HYPNOS was situated. Where Yamachi was waiting.

A desk girl briefly looked up, offered them some really shitty coffee, and told them to head straight up. "The boss was waiting." Oh boy.  
Markus had never seen the Hypnos tower from the inside before, and Yamachi didn't much like having film crews inside a still operating government program. Markus huffed. If you could call an empire inside a world created by computers a government program.

"Captain Andrew Markus." a deep voice spoke to him. "So good you and your men could make it." He paused and looked at Markus' crew. "You men and women head right on down to the briefing room, room 2B. Your captain will join you shortly."

The crew complied with complains and groans. They wanted sleep, not sleep inducing briefings.

"So, captain. You're neck deep in it now." Yamachi said. "You'd still be in your own bed if it weren't for this rogue."

Markus narrowed his eyes. "Pretty much, yeah. So, let's cut the shit. Why is this one so important? Isn't this a good thing? One less in our world, and another for the imperial forces to mop up in the digital world? I mean—"

"Yes, I know." Yamachi interrupted. "But this one is special. She has a tamer."

"Which means she has a human bound to her now."

"Indeed. This is why Emperor Valdius wants her tracked down. She could represent something more than just another wild one. A tamer and digimon are capable of incredible things, as you have probably seen on the news plenty of times. That makes her dangerous. Besides, this kid is innocent. Misguided, but innocent. Emperor Valdius wants him found, so that his bond can be severed and we can bring him back to his parents."

Markus rubbed his eyes. Gods, what a mess.

"Look." Yamachi began. "I know this isn't your fault. Emperor Valdius does, too. It's just that ... He thinks that you're the best man for the job. And before you accuse us of forcing you, we know. And we're sorry. We just needed you to say yes."

"Alright." Markus said. "So when do we leave?"

"You leave at dawn, 06:00 sharp, Colonel." Yamachi replied.

Markus' eyes widened.

"Oh, yes. Congratulations. You have been promoted. We realized how harsh we were, so we wanted to give you a little something. But more importantly, this makes you an official CO of your unit in the DEH military when you get to the digital world. Some new members, that are yet to be introduced, are actually your old rank. I was also instructed to tell you that, if you succeed, you might actually get much more than just this."

Colonel Markus smiled. This might be good for him after all.

...

 _Well, shit. Sorry about the months long wait. College is being a bummer. I'm going to try and be more frequent from now on._


	7. Chapter 6

_Remember what I said about update frequency? I lied. Life stops for nobody. Also, keep in mind that the parts aren't necessarily written sequentially. They might be happening in parallel, so I'll add some cues in so you'll know when what happens._

...

Rushing air and purple light guided Markus' descent into the digital world. G-forces pulled on his guts as he slowed down, coming to a gentle stop on the gate platform. His team followed briefly after. As he stepped off, alarms began to buzz. They were closing the gate.

"Ah, colonel Andrew Markus. Welcome to the digital world." a man neatly dressed in a white uniform spoke.

"Admiral." Markus replied with a brief salute. He wasn't sure if he did it right.

The admiral raised an eyebrow. "Let's not waste any time, your mark certainly won't. You have been briefed on your mission, yes?"

The purple light behind Markus began to fade. The last open gate was now closed, and Markus realized it became night.

"Yes sir." Markus said as they all walked into a well-lit corridor. "But I have to ask-"

"Why all the hassle? For just one digimon and a boy? Well, colonel, even I don't know that. The Emperor wishes it however. And that's reason enough." White replied.

They walked into an atrium and were greeted by a pair of pilots and a boy, maybe 15 or 16 years old. Markus frowned. He didn't like it.

"Colonel? Meet the three new members of your team : captain Anneke van Veen, ensign Carina Walt, and agent Samuel Colton. They will be joining you for this mission." White said. The three saluted.

"Hang on. How old is the kid?" Markus asked. "Is he even old enough to enlist?"

"Agent Colton is here to provide intel on the target, as well as fulfilling a diplomatic role to try and detain the target peaceably. And his age is classified." White sharply said.

"I'm 15." Samuel said. Admiral white glared at him.

"At any rate, your new members will not fail you. These two ladies are among the best pilots we have. We assumed none of you had flown an airship before. Now, if you will excuse me, I will leave you to bond with your team on the journey to the Citadel dockyards, where you will find your ship. Good luck, colonel."

With that, the admiral gave a small nod and walked off into a transport helicopter.

...

The expansive, lush forest never seemed to end. Thomas couldn't help but look up to the sky all the time, still in awe of the digital world. What struck him was the presence of birds, insects. Forest sounds of Earth. It was so unreal, and yet it felt completely real. A sense of vertigo overtook him, and he looked down to try holding down his lunch.

Oh, right. Lunch.

"So, Renamon. Are we going to uh... Eat something?" he asked, supressing a rumble from his stomach.

"No need. Just keep moving."

"No need? But, don't we—" Thomas stammered.

"I told you how you survived the fall, yes? Your body doesn't need food here. Your mind does." Renamon replied, pausing. "But... I suppose that eating isn't something that you can just stop doing."

She sighed. "Very well. Let's find something to eat. Don't stray too far though."

"What am I, 6?" Thomas asked sourly.

"You may as well be for all the smart moves you made. Who knows what else lurks in this forest. Rule of thumb : If it's not the Empire you need to look out for, it's other digimon."

Thomas frowned, but resigned to her instructions.

A few minutes passed, while Thomas ate some berries and nuts. Renamon ate nothing. Thomas admired his surroundings some more.

"Hey, Renamon... How did the digital world open up again?"

Renamon chuckled. "It never closed. Not really."

Thomas frowned. "That's not what the news said."

"And yet here you are. Do you still believe them?"

Thomas shook his head.

"I thought not." Renamon said smugly. "After the D-Reaper, Janyu Wong and his team managed to almost seal off the digital world. But, with Earth becoming more reliant on the internet, the tiniest breaches became gaps... Gateways. And so the digital world re-opened."

"Did Henry and the others seek out their partners?" Thomas asked.

"No. At least, not that we know. Unless Rika did. Her Renamon hasn't been seen since. But the rest all reside in Shadewood. Don't worry, if we make it there, I'll introduce you."

"That would be-" Thomas began, when the light suddenly began to rapidly fade. Earth went from a bright, sun-like orb to a vaguely glowing ball in the sky.

"... Great?"

Renamon sat next to Thomas protectively. "Nightfall. We should find a shelter. We need rest, but the Empire might not. Come on, we'll get some sleep."

Thomas gawked at the now dim Earth. "It's so sudden.."

"Yes, another thing to get used to. Now start walking, or I'll carry you."

...

Samuel spent most of the ride in silence, as did most of his new team. He contemplated how the hell he'd gotten into all this. It was a normal school day less than a day or two ago... Now he's fighting in some army, sworn to protect Earth against the very creatures that saved it all those years ago.

Sworn to protect Earth against one of his best friends.

"Guys?" He asked, his mind blurred, working overtime processing it all. "Is this... Real?"

Nobody laughed like he had half expected. Instead, the colonel spoke up.

"Yeah kid. It's real." There was an expression of understanding on his face.

Samuel smiled and huffed. "You know, my family doesn't even know where I am. The Emperor told me that they were told I was kidnapped by terrorists. A much more believable story, he'd said. Much more comforting too."

There was a silence. Captain van Veen spoke up. "ISIS would be a mercy compared to some of the things we'd see here." Samuel went pale. "But the digital world is mostly under control. You're safe with us, promise." she quickly added.

"And besides, you'll get used to it." Walt added. "This world, I mean. The digimon. The Empire."

"Hey back there, hate to interrupt, but we're there in 5. Get your gear packed, you're going to be moving into your new ship."

After a moment, with a soft thud, the transport had landed. The loading ramp lowered revealing a spectacle that left Markus astounded. The maps hadn't done this place justice, Markus thought as he gawked in the rain.

A vast, tiered city greeted them. At the outskirts was the military districts, riddled with dockyards and factories, the outer walls lined with heavy cannons. The inner circle, separated from the first tier with a canyon and a high wall, armed to the teeth, was the civilian district. Flats, neon lights and streetcars. Again separated with a canyon, and followed by high walls, was the center. A towering, cathedral like structure that seemed to pierce the eye of the storm. The Citadel. The most guarded place in the digital world, its metal construction gleamed in the lightning flashes, occasionally revealing it's silhouette in the foggy conditions.

"You people... Built all this?" He stammered.

"Yup. But if you follow me, sir, I'll show you what else we built. And trust me, you'll like this."

The brief walk towards an oddly quiet hangar made Markus and his team uneasy. Where was the staff? The city was buzzing a few hangars ago...

Captain van Veen produced a keycard. She swiped it, opening the door into a dimly lit hallway.

"In here, sir." she said curtly.

Markus stepped inside, noting how he couldn't hear the rain anymore. He shivered. Swallowing quietly, he moved through the hallway towards a T section with a mirror.

"Now, sir. You probably read up the file of your ship. Lo and behold." Van Veen said.

Floodlights sprang on in the hangar, revealing the mirror to be a window instead. Inside the hangar was a brand new, matte grey airship. Markus hadn't seen anything like it.

"Something else, right?" Walt asked. "Not my colour, but hey. Also there is no name sprayed on, nothing. Guess she's meant to be off the books. Never seen her designation before either, or her specs." Walt and van Veen guided Markus' team to a door reading 'hangar floor'. "But from what I was told, she's fast. Very fast."

As they walked down a set of stairs, Samuel couldn't help but stare. This went from being a hot mess to a dream come true real quick.

van Veen handed the team a set of keys. "Biometrically locked. Only you can use it, and there's only one of each. That means _don't_ lose it. If you do, we'll have to keep you aboard as cleaning detail until we can get you a new key made." she said.

She pressed the button that called down an elevator leading into the aft cargo hold.

"After you sir." she said.

The ship was pristine, brand new. Probably built here in this old hangar, complete hush hush. The team made their way to the bridge (first installing their limited personal items in the bunks and checking the fridge in the canteen for beer), and settled in. Markus took a seat in the captain's chair. Now, he was a married man that left his youth behind a long time ago. But he had to admit, this was cool. From his seat, the large canopy provided sight in front, sides, above and below. He could just see the two barrels of the hailstorm gun sticking out from underneath the canopy.

"Alright captain." he said. "Let's fire her up."

"Yes sir." the captain complied. "Carina, fire up main engines, transfer helm to my station. See to keeping us level and monitoring..." she went on, giving orders to the ensign. Markus smiled, he actually smiled. Who knows! This could yet be fun.

The engines roared to life and the hangar doors above parted, revealing a stormy sky.

"Don't worry folks. It's an artificial storm, it will let us pass." Walt said. And with those words captain van Veen took off, the four massive rotors blowing over everything in the hangar that wasn't bolted down.

"Carl. Do we have an estimate of the target's landing zone?" Markus asked his team member.

"Yes sir. Transferring to NavCon now." he replied.

"Then let's go." Markus smiled. After taking a brief, bird's eye look at the marvellous city below, he watched as he was pressed into his seat. Man, this thing _was_ fast.

...

Thomas tossed and turned in his sleep. Murmuring and sweating, he dreamed...

" _You can't do this, please..."_

 _Thunderclouds roiled around Thomas as he floated through a storm..._

" _Do I have a choice? They betrayed us, they must be an example..."_

 _Darkness enveloped him..._

" _Please stop this..."_

" _They are the enemy!"_

 _The lightning intensified..._

" _You will serve me, or you will burn with them..."_

 _A dark figure loomed over the storm..._

" _... Renamon."_

"Stop!" he yelled, panting. He looked around the den Renamon and he had found. The small fire they had made was just embers now. It was still dark.

"Bad dream?" Renamon asked, not really as a question.

"Yeah... Did you...?" Thomas said.

"No. But I felt it."

"What was that? It was different..."

"Just a dream. Don't worry about it. We should move, we only have half a day of darkness left." she rushed.

"Hold on, I –"

"No time. Come on, we need to utilize the dark while we can. Nights and days are of equal length here, we shouldn't waste it more than we have to."

Groggily, Thomas walked out of the den. Renamon stomped out the embers and covered them with dirt before joining Thomas.

"Hey, Renamon? Are we going to have to walk all the way to the Scar?"

"Well, we don't have a vehicle, and you don't have a digivolve card so I can become Kyubimon and take you."

"Well, true I have no cards but..." Thomas said. He pointed at something oddly shaped. Something grey.

"Look at this!" he said excited. An imperial transport truck sat there, in the middle of the forest. From the look of it, it was trashed and abandoned a while ago. Each of its 12 wheels was almost twice as tall as Thomas, and it towered well above them.

"A carrier truck." Renamon said, calmly. "Probably from the time where the digimon fled for the Scar."

"What do you think is in there?"

"Weapons. Armour."

"A vehicle?"

"Not likely. And we shouldn't use it even if there is. The empire will find us immediately." Renamon said cautiously. "In fact, it may be best to not touch this thing altogether. Who knows what we might set off."

Thomas, paying no heed to Renamon, had found a log to climb onto towards the cockpit.

"Hey, there's something in... Here..."

In the pilot's chair sat a pilot, several holes punched in their armour. From what Thomas could see, not much remained of the actual pilot. Thomas gagged and almost fell off the log.

"Jezus..." he gasped.

"What?"

"The pilot's still in here!" he said.

"Let me see." Renamon calmly said, walking up the log. "Old armour. From when the digimon fled, like I said. This guy's helmet cam is probably out of juice by now." She turned around to Thomas. "Do you want me to check it out?"

Thomas nodded. With that, Renamon disappeared for a moment.

Thomas sat down against a wheel, and waited. He jumped when something white and grey clattered in front of him.

"Here, take that. An assault rifle. Older model, sure. But it'll work. Oh, and some ammunition." Renamon said plainly, as if she hadn't just grave robbed an Imperial assault truck. "No vehicles in there I'm afraid."

Thomas slung the rifle over his shoulder and pocketed the magazines when he felt something in his pocket. His phone.

He pulled it out and checked it quickly. No signal. One message. It was mom, asking where he was. That punched him in the gut like a sledgehammer.

"What's that?" Renamon asked. Her face fell a bit when she saw. "Oh... I forgot. They'll be worried sick..." With that she put an arm on Thomas' shoulder. "Look. You'll be fine, okay? We'll find a way home for you."

Thomas nodded and moved to put it in his pocket. Renamon stopped him.

"You should toss that though. The Empire might—"

"No." Thomas said firmly. Renamon shrugged.

"Let's go then." She said. "If we make it to the desert, we may get to Sandhaven. We can probably score some transport there."


End file.
